Abril 18, 2022

How do we ensure Galaxy devices are protected with up-to-date security patches?

Yongsub Eric Shin

As more Samsung devices are deployed to our enterprise customers’ mobile fleet, it is our mission to continuously integrate the latest security technologies to all Galaxy devices, and make sure we respond to any emerging threats or cyberattacks as often and quickly as possible. Based on numerous discussions with our valued customers, we have implemented an industry-leading protection for our Android devices.

With regards to data security and privacy, our award-winning security platform, Samsung Knox is embedded in every Samsung Galaxy device to provide best-in-class security with full encryption, real-time detection and protection, and remote attestation based on hardware root of trust, which is uniquely embedded during manufacturing process.

However, we also know that it is important to keep your devices up to date with the latest security patches and have been working to provide security updates each month. These monthly updates are what we call the “Security Maintenance Releases” (SMR)

 

What does each SMR entail?

Every month, we release a Security Maintenance Release note on our Samsung Mobile Security site. Each of the SMRs include the security patches from the following stakeholders:

  • Google security patches for Android Platform
  • Samsung security patches for Samsung-specific features
  • Chipset security patches from our partners including Qualcomm, Broadcom, and Samsung System-LSI.

All these stakeholders above take security and privacy very seriously. We continuously monitor this space to see if any potential threat exists and work together to respond as quick as possible. This exercise is now in place as a monthly basis that Samsung’s Galaxy devices are eligible to get monthly security patches, and we also specify which devices get monthly security patches on our Mobile Security page.

 

Longevity matters

We also know that enterprise customers utilize Galaxy devices for longer period in order to maximize their investment on corporate-liable devices. It is also in everyone’s best interest to keep the corporate data and employee privacy safe and protected during the lifetime of the devices.  Consequently, enterprise customers seek to get longer security patch support period. Listening carefully to these needs from our customers, we have recently announced that we will be supporting up to 5 years of security MR and 4 generations of Android OS upgrades for select devices. With this upgraded update policy, we wish to ensure our customers can rest assured with longer protection.

 

Galaxy Enterprise Edition

With our Galaxy Enterprise Edition devices, our customers get the front row seat to this security and software update commitment.  They will receive the top priority with our latest security protection, delivered in a consistent and timely manner from the beginning of each month.

They will also know cadence (monthly, quarterly or bi-annually) of the security patches for their devices, at the global launching point. For enterprise customers, this will help them plan their mobile device deployment and management strategies with committed consistency by Samsung. It provides a peace of mind, indeed.

Furthermore, we will shortly be implementing a dashboard for Enterprise customers to check the security MR status of their Enterprise Edition devices with clear visibility. We will share more details when the new feature becomes available.